The album was a huge commercial success, eventually selling over 8 million copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest albums by a UK R&B artist ever. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified 6× Platinum. With first-week sales of 225,320 copies, it holds the record for the fastest-selling debut album ever by a British male solo act. The album eventually peaked at number two on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart after spending nearly 20 weeks on the chart. It was certified Platinum in the United States by the RIAA. The album was acclaimed by music critics and later voted number two on the MTV Greatest Albums of All Time in April 2009.[1]

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After being enlisted for Artful Dodger's "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)" by producers/songwriters Mark Hill and Pete Devereux, Craig David began recording his debut album, in which began in 1999 until 2000 before David had even been offered a recording contract. Mark Hill believes that "the absence of label executives and such provided the two with greater freedom when producing the album. When we started writing Born to Do It, there were no labels involved or managers or anything. We'd written the majority of the album before any of us were signed, so it was very much an organic process and it was just the two of us working on it without anyone. I remember when we were taking demos around the industry trying to get a deal, we had '7 Days', 'Walking Away', 'Time to Party' and others and those ended up being the final versions of the album."[2] The title Born to Do It comes from a quote describing the character Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.